Ideally, we'd all be buying about equipment in the same range, but I'm sure there's always certain places we all like to spend extra.

Whether you love to rock the $600 gore-tex jacket from some obscure russian brand, but couldn't care less if you were wearing jeans, or a $300 pair of goggles but enjoy frostbitten fingers, we all have little nitpicks.

I really love high end gloves and pants. Don't care much for fancy helmets or jackets.

Relatively, I would spend the most money on boots, then bindings, then board.

I don't like spending money anywhere. I have too little of it to begin with :P

But since I love snowboarding and really want to get better at it, I've made some effort (and an investment):

So far my jacket is turning out to be the most expensive piece of gear I got. Followed by the board (which I got on a deal), the goggles (needed a pair badly and fast before my 1st time out), the pants and bindings were really close (got last year's bindings also on a deal, way below MSRP) - and I haven't gotten the boots yet. Oh and my gloves were super-cheap, not even worth mentioning. And socks were even cheaper. That's it!

I don't like to spend money anywhere, but sometimes you get what you pay for. I ride an expensive board, but didn't pay full price for it, expensive bindings and boots, but didn't pay full price for them.

On the other hand my jacket is a 10 year old Planet Earth, my pants were on sale for $35 last spring, my low light goggles were $40, and I think I paid about $90 for my helmet. My goretex gloves were on sale this summer for $25.

Where I don't mind spending is being able to ride. Bought $1300 season passes this year that get me out to 5 mountains. Three of them are some of the most sought after places to ride. No point in paying a shitload for gear if you're not getting out there on it!

I purchase expensive gear; board, bindings boots, clothing, etc. But after years of my primary extreme sport, paintball...which has drained me for thousands, even the most expensive snowboarding gear doesn't really seem expensive.
Still though I save when I can. Like buying hardgoods at the end of the season when its 30-40% off.

I always try and get the best gear that I can at the lowest price. Whether that's buying the same model one or two years old on Ebay or just waiting till the end of the season to get the sweet discounts. Whiskey Militia and SAC are kick ass places if you need something not necessarily right away. Just got another decent pair of gloves for $10. There is now way you can get anything that cheap on ebay or through discounts. I personally would spend the most money on: snowboard, boots, bindings, pants, jacket, helmet/goggles, gloves. Respectively.